Could You Repeat That?
by TurboFerret
Summary: An AU where Jazz returns to his precinct after a prolonged stay in medbay and greets the new addition to the team from Praxus. He is also not very good with telling Praxians apart.
1. Chapter 1

First proper Jazz/Prowl fick!

* * *

Jazz was greeted with a cheer when he entered the common room of the precinct. His rather extended stay in medbay had not gone unnoticed. Closest coworkers and friends had come by to visit him but the 'Welcome back Jazz!' party was the absolute rust stick on top.

-"Hey Blaster!" Jazz grinned at the tapedeck and clapped his shoulder strut. -"Great party! Ah bet all this had nothin' ta do with ya."

The tapedeck chuckled but did not respond to that.

-"Jazzman! How's your side?"

-"Good as new, how's office been in my absence? How's the newbies?"

Blaster motioned Jazz to follow him to the refreshments table. Jazz was already tracing the outline of black and white doorwings in the back, following their movement with interest.

-"Two Praxies, Bluestreak - Sniper and Prowl - forensics." Blaster tilted his helm to the side, while plucking a cube of energon off the table.

-"Any Blaster insights?" Jazz leant his hip strut against the table to invade Blaster's personal space just a little, causing the tapedeck to snort.

-"Do your own work, investigator."

Jazz chose a cube of his own, glowing in iridescent purple, his absolute favourite as far as party drinks went.

-"Aw c'mon, don't keep meh guessin', Ah'm still offic'lly on sick leave, and ah can't wait 'till tomorrow, so spill!"

Blaster tilted his helm as if he was about to decline but then yielded.

-"Blue's cute."

Jazz mentioned him to come sit at one of the less occupied tables, pushing a bunch of empty cubes to the side to clear some space for them.

-"Cute or 'cute'?"

-"The 'twins adopted him' cute." Blaster clarified with a chuckle, seeing the two mechs in question make their way through the crowd.

That earned a visor flash from Jazz.

-"No way, even Sunny?"

-"Especially Sunny."

Jazz released a low whistle. -"Mech, there seems ta be some truth th'rumor 'bout Praxies."

-"I would not get your hopes up about that."

-"Ah take it tha' t'forensics s'less cute then?"

Blaster hummed and tilted his helm. -"Eh… Prowl is… Prowl, I guess?"

Jazz's expression turned curious.

-"Did he spit in ya' energon or somethin'?"

-"Nope, but he sure looks like someone is constantly spitting into his." Blaster shrugged. -"Either way I have seen them both around at some point this evening so you might just bump into them."

Jazz smirked and was off the bar stool already.

-"Well then ah will 'ave t'go make some introductions."

-"You do that mech!"

Jazz first made a beeline towards the doorwings he'd been observing for a while already. Black and white, twitching slightly in a manner that Jazz found rather appealing. Blaster had been right, the mech Was cute though to be more exact - he was a bit more than that, no surprize that the twins were sharing his table. Sides was chatting in an animated manner and even Sunny looked pleased.

-"Jazz! Come over, we want you to meet someone!" the red riot control waved him over.

-"Don' mind if ah do!"

Jazz slid in seat nearest to their Praxian guest and beamed.

-"This is our mentor, he helped us in the enforcer academy."

-"More like prevented us from being expelled." Sunstreaker amended

They both had been of a remiss to mention the name so Jazz took that task upon himself.

-"'M' Jazz, pleased to meet'ya, an' you mus' be Bluestreak? Certain tapedeck told me ya're quite good wit' guns."

Silence fell over the table. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker grinned in amusement, slag.

The Praxian dimmed his optics and paused, then cleared his intake softly, doorwings canting forward gently, effectively drawing attention to himself.

-"Prowl, actually, but I've been told Bluestreak and I look alike. And you are right in that Bluestreak indeed is very skilled with arms, thought I suggest you ask him in person."

Prowl... Of course, Jazz should have expected this...OK, he had messed up but this was not something he could not remedy. Change of modes.

-"Ah, mech, ma' bad! I'ave not met Blueastreak yet and ya both are Praxian..."

Jazz stopped abruptly. Oh, great, now he was implying that all Praxians looked the same.

-"Not ta' say that all Praxians look tha' same, jus'..."

Jazz rubbed his visor, where did all his suave talk-skill go?

-"Tha' didna come out well. Can ah' start over?"

Sideswipe was having trouble suppressing laughter. Sunstreaker looked like he was having some prime entertainment.

Prowl, however, remained perfectly poised though Jazz did notice him looking at his intake more intently than one normally would. Was the mech lipreading?

-"Please do not feel embarrassed on my account also I believe Sideswipe wanted to add something..."

Was that polite or condescending? The tone was so neutral it was impossible to tell. Jazz shot them a bright smile.

-"Sorry Prowl, but we gotta cut it short, Blue's looking for us and we better not make him wait."

The Praxian vented softly and dimmed his optics before pinning the twins with an icy stare.

-"Do not do anything I would not."

-"That would be boring as slag!"

-"If you did not want my advice you should not have asked for it."

Within this short exchange Jazz learned a few crucial things.

1 - Praxians were magical creatures of the lore whenever the twins were involved

2 - Praxians also happened to be Jazz's ultimate undoing

The cruel twins had left Jazz one on one with Prowl whom he might have just insulted. Who probably thought Jazz was just another ignorant 'hexie. And Jazz had Totally contributed to this…

Nervously he dangled his knee-strut, searching for something not-awkward to say. Suddenly all confidence and light flirty manner were gone. Jazz briefly contemplated catching up with the twins to greet Bluestreak. Then decided against it. Leaving Prowl at the table on his own after such a short moment would be impolite.

So Jazz remained, smiling stiffly. The Praxian sipped his energon, then set his cube down and addressed Jazz.

-"I apologize for making you uncomfortable, was it something I said?"

What? If anyone, it was Jazz who'd messed up.

-"Na, mech, ya good. Ah'm usually better at conversatin' than that. Guess ah' lost mah touch loungin' 'round medbay."

Prowl briefly furrowed his brow, he still looked at Jazz's lips, what was it with the mech?

-"I heard you were badly injured."

-"Line 'a duty." Jazz shrugged.

-"The report said your aim was to observe and not to confront."

Slag, the mech had actually Read the scratch Jazz managed putting down while half-conscious with pain blockers?.

-"Yea, initially."

-"Initially?"

Prowl's optics brightened in surprise. He canted his doorwings forward in display of interest and Jazz suddenly felt put on spot.

-"Ah improvised when ah saw there were mo' big bots at the gatherin' than expected. Who knows when we'd see them in incriminatin' settin' again."

-"The probability of you being offlined was 67.4%, that was a high risk to take."

Jazz just shrugged, writing off the Praxian as one of those detail-oriented mecha. Adding stats to his observation was an interesting touch though.

-"Ya know, it happens sometimes."

Prowl's mouth opened in what Jazz could only interpret was mild astonishment. He stayed pensive for a moment before resuming what he wanted to say.

-"I am impressed." Jazz could feel his confidence returning slightly at seeing the pretty Praxian looking at him in wide-opticked amazement. -"You managed keeping your position after a gross insubordination on your behalf."

Jazz could have sworn he heard a noise of a record scratching. Prowl's sudden twist of conversation made him do a double-take on the Praxian to make sure he heard him right.

Ok, so Prowl was the 'by-the-book' type of mech.

-"Lessay field ops get sum' leeway."

Jazz stretched in his seat, wincing slightly at a healing seam that was still somewhat tender. Time to divert attention from him lest they start a fight before they even got a chance of working together.

-"How did ya come up with that probability anyway?"

Prowl contemplated his cube for a moment.

-"Weighing out probabilities is what I do for my line of duty; call it a mental exercise."

-"So, y'asess th'success rate o' enforcers?" Jazz somehow did not like where this was going either. Evaluating enforcer productivity was a touchy subject. It was necessary but if applied superficially, it had a potential of undervaluing some officers who had tougher cases to solve.

-"No." Prowl paused, opics shuttering once more. -"As I said, it was a mental exercise. I normally apply this kind of assessment to cases that need to be solved."

There was no need for Prowl to be on defensive but Jazz was somewhat happy he had managed getting under the Praxian's plating, too.

-"So, how's forensics lab work 'n Praxus? Any different fra' 'ere?"

Prowl's optics brightened and doorwings twitched just slightly.

-"In fact, it was one of the subjects I wanted to broach with you, thank you for introducing it first."

Jazz leant back, just what had he done? Also, why were they still engaged in a conversation?

-"Ya sure 't can't wait 'til t'morro'?"

Prowl, for the lack of a better glyph, was staring at Jazz's faceplate once more and Jazz finally felt unnerved enough to say something about it.

-"Can ya stahp tha'?"

-"I beg your pardon?"

-"Couldya stahp doin' whacha doin'?"

Prowl stared more persistently at Jazz's intake now than ever before.

-"Could you repeat that please?"

Jazz shuttered his optics, judging by their previous conversations the mech was not audibly impaired but Jazz had met a handful of creeps in his time and wanted to face it head-on.

-"Can. Ya. Stahp lookin'. At mah. Face-hole?"

Prowl pinched his nasal ridge with a huff.

-"Pardon me, but your accent is giving my processor some trouble."

-"Mech! Rude?" Jazz got off his seat with a fluff of his armor.

It seemed that the Praxian had no trouble understanding That. As he acted adequately flustered at his reaction, doorwings tilting up in distress.

-"I did not mean to…!"

Jazz paused at seemingly earnest display of remorse. He slid back into his chair in a fluid motion, waving off the protests.

-"Y'are fine, mech. Ah sometime fo'get tha' most mechs here are used ta 'hexie accent."

Those doorwings settled in a position that implied Prowl was still wary but at least for now the communication crisis had been averted.

-"I did mean it though. I find your accent difficult to understand sometimes." Prowl stated, letting his doorwings slide lower in a manner that made him less threatening-looking. -"In fact, it gives me a processor ache."

Jazz smirked. -"Ya 'av'nt met many 'hexies b'fore, 'ave ya?"

At Prowl's miserable facial expression Jazz vented and focused. -"Ahye meant that yaou 'ave not met many mecha from Polyhex beefore."

-"Thank you; and no, I have not."

Jazz rubbed his helm now -"Now tha' gives meh a helmache."

Prowl smiled a little -"To be frank this is even worse than your natural accent but I appreciate your effort regardless."

-"Aft." Jazz muttered under his breath.

-"I'm aware." Prowl amended matter of factly. " And I do not expect you to change your manner of speech for me, but then please do not get offended if I try to engage all my sensors to fully understand you."

Realization dawned over Jazz and he laughed. Quickly realizing that probably he was making Prowl think he laughed at Him, Jazz amended.

-"'Scuz' meh, ah'm laughin' at mahself. T'be frank, ah've had a buncha bozos leer at meh in a manner pretteh sim'lar ta what ya're doin' now."

Prowl was doing that weird staring at his intake thing again but this time Jazz did not flinch.

-"Oh…" Prowl paused once more, connecting the input data from all his sensors. -"I am very sorry to hear that. I am at a loss of how to remedy this without making you feel uncomfortable. At least this evening."

-"Ya could start by loomin' less. Just ask meh ta repeat 'till it makes sense ta ya."

-"That is not very efficient."

Jazz had no answer to this so he shrugged instead.

-"I am sorry to bring this up out of the work environment but there was another matter of efficiency which I wanted to bring up though..."

Jazz vented dramatically and slumped over the table. There was no way of evading the subject now. -"Fiiine, lay it on meh."

Notes:

* * *

This was somewhat inspired by Brooklyn 99. I get that these two probably were very much OOC here.

But regardless, I might develop this into a proper story when I am done with some of my ongoing multichapter ficks.


	2. Chapter 2

In which Optimus cares, Prowl is cunning and Jazz is not as good as he thinks he is.

Oops, my hand slipped.

* * *

-"And Then he told meh tha' mah reports were slag in th' most polite way possible. Givin' meh all th' reasons why filin' good reports mattered in law enforcemen' effort. " Jazz threw his servos up in defeat. -"Ah couldna even argue wit' tha'!"

Blaster listened lightheartedly as he and Jazz were headed towards their offices after sharing a morning cube of oil.

-"But he is forensics, why would he be reading yours or any of the investigator reports?" Blaster rubbed his chin deep in thought

-"OP asked his assistance ta deal with th' workload?" Jazz shrugged, equally confused.

-"Makes no sense."

-"Ah know. 'S like there is somethin' more ta it tha' we dunno."

-"Could he be a government plant? I could have Eject take a look at his personal file."

-"Nah, tha' woul' imply we don' trust 'im. Bad fo' morale, ya dig? 'Sides, he's too good at forensics."

They rounded the bend of the corridor.

-"Could be a plant good at….Good orn Prowl!"

Jazz wisely stopped before walking into the Praxian and mirrored the greeting.

Prowl looked at both of them with a mildly suspicious squint. -"Good orn to you, too. There is an office meeting starting in a few clicks, are you coming?"

Both Jazz and Blaster remotely changed their statuses to 'attending' on their office intranet.

-"Sure thing mech." Jazz winked at him.

-"I will see you there then, if you excuse me I still have a couple of tasks to finish."

When Prowl was out of Audio range, Blaster commed Jazz for safety's sake.

::Told you he is a plant.::

::Nah, jus' a mech who thinks he runs th' place.::

The meeting was headed by Inferno - their arson specialist who also happened to be a part-time firefighter. This meant meant that every once in awhile he would brief them on office safety. Since Ratchet had banned him from doing fire extinguishing demonstrations on site after that one time when Wheeljack suggested they set their energon dispenser on fire by shooting it, these meetings had become dull.

This particular one was about how not to extinguish energon that has caught fire by dousing it with coolant - textbook example of how one put a mech to sleep. Though it also was sort of warranted after Rodimus had gone and done that just a few weeks prior.

Rodimus - the reason why they were all there - absentmindedly doodled in his notepad.

To bide their time Jazz and Blaster traded speculations about Prowl's affiliations. They spanned anywhere from neighboring precincts to gangs, to aliens. It had to be over short-range though, murmuring would have been disrespectful.

In the meantime Prowl and Bluestreak politely sat at rigid attention but judging by their steadily drooping doorwings even they found it difficult to keep alert.

The tactical decision of the twins to position themselves behind the Praxians was paying dividends now as they both were fully invested in the movement of the doorwings in front of them. Following each drowsy flick with rapt wonder whereas otherwise they would have already been in light recharge.

Optimus did a valiant effort at taking notes and asking questions but received a mild reprimanding comm from Ratchet. The medic advised him not to draw the meeting out longer than it was absolutely necessary.

Probably the only one who was completely engrossed in the meeting was Red Alert and Ratchet; probably because it was their job to make sure nobody got offlined inside the building.

Finally Inferno was done but just between sighs of relief and getting up from their afts, Optimus took place at the lectern with another announcement. Jazz and Blaster barely paid attention to it until Optimus summoned Prowl to the front, too. Now this was interesting Jazz, tuned back in.

-"And with this I would like you to welcome our new second in command."

The world stopped for Jazz. Wait what? Was the mech not into forensics?

Prowl thanked Optimus and continued.

-"As some of you may know I joined this precinct as a new addition to the forensics department. However, I am sure some of you might have wondered this sudden change. I want to be perfectly clear that this is not a promotion." The Praxian paused to let the statement sink in. -"I wanted to know you in a work environment as a colleague rather than a superior before I started with the duty I was assigned for." Prowl canted his doorwings just a little lower. -"I offer my apologies for misleading you but I hope now you would be more at ease to address me with any issues you might have."

Jazz gulped and eyed Blaster from the corner of his visor. The tapedeck had a little disbelieving smirk on his face. Well slag him, the little doorwinger was full of surprises. Jazz was enchanted; nothing was as interesting a challenge as a cunning mech.

::Shut yer intake before you drool all over yourself.::

Blaster, always a friend.

After the meeting was over Jazz slid beside the twins in the mess hall. From what he knew they were the mecha that knew Prowl better but were probably not as close as Bluestreak - being Praxian and all.

-"Soo Prowl was ya mentor."

-"Mm…?" Sunstreaker reacted first, lazily eyeing Jazz over the rim of his energon. Holding the cube artistically between his steepled fingers. -"What about it?"

-"How was 'e as a mentor?"

Sunstreaker quirked a smile and Sideswipe slid in place beside him with his energon. In moments like these one could see the striking resemblance between the two as the red twin stretched just as lazily next to his brother and took up the talking duties.

-"He's gooood." Said Sideswipe with a drawl in his voice that was completely out of place when talking about mentoring.

Jazz rubbed his forehelm.

-"Real good." Sunstreaker joined in after seeing the effect they had on Jazz.

-"Ah'm guessin' ya're not 'bout ta jus' tell meh."

Sunstreaker shrugged and Sideswipe elaborated. -"It's strange of you to ask all of a sudden."

-"Ta be honest ah'm a lil' fascinated wit' 'im now." Jazz took the sincere route, the twins were doubly perceptive when mood struck them.

-"Prowl's wary of rumors." Sunstreaker axed.

-"If you want to know anything about him you will have to ask him yourself." Sideswipe mirrored his brother's body language and gave Jazz a cheeky grin.

Jazz was a bit envious of how much respect the twins had for Prowl while the rest of the precinct was struggling to keep them in check. But there were several ways of skinning a turbofox so he opted for another approach.

-"How 'bout ya two then? How didya get inta th' same academy?"

-"We're riot." Sunstreaker stated as if that explained everything.

-"Yeah, what Sunny means is that we were not enlisted for our tactical planning skills or our way with words. We're big, crazy and we can work in unison."

At Jazz's disbelievng expression Sideswipe huffed.

-"Hey, we Can when we wanna!"

-"Ah'll trust ya word on tha' one." Jazz smirked.

Sunstreaker waved him off in a dismissing manner and a roll of optics. Sideswipe continued with their story, eager to share it with someone who seemed at least vaguely curious.

-"So in academy we were seen as sort of grunts. Looked down on much. Many riots deserved it, too, but we got in trouble the most."

Jazz smirked -"Naw ya didna, coulda fooled meh."

-"Shut up." Sunstreaker stated in a peeved tone, annoyed that Jazz had interrupted his brother.

-"That's where Prowl comes in. You know, all perfect student, super smart, top of class, a 'bit condescending for it. Told us off for doing dumb slag. After that.. We sort of..." Sideswipe gestured wildly, trying to find the right words.

-"Glued doorwings together." Sunstreaker supplied.

Jazz winced in sympathy. For a Praxian that had to be incredibly painful.

-"Yeah.." Sideswipe rubbed the back of his helm in rare display of regret. -"Still apologizing to him 'till this day."

-"Wax and polish. Never accepted."

Sideswipe nodded in confirmation to what Sunstreaker had said. -"We were so bad then that if he filed a formal complaint against us we would be back out on streets of Kaon." There was a hint of past desperation in the red twin's voice. Most likely the feeling was still somewhat fresh.

-"Ah'm guessin' 'e didna." Jazz supplied, trying to move the conversation along without letting the twins dwell too long on that.

-"Na, he didn't. Instead he offered mentoring as an alternative disciplinary action."

-"Wanted us as field ops."

Jazz blinked -"So ya actually 'ave a field op' trainin'?"

-"It's a mix." Sunstreaker inclined his helm.

-"With twin spark link and all; he thought we would be more valuable. In fact he was a bit disappointed we were not field ops here."

Jazz wondered that too. -"Tha's generous o' 'im."

-"Told you he's good." Sunstreaker gave him a predatory grin.

Jazz shot the mech one of his infamous smirks, happy with the little pieces of puzzle he'd gotten despite the twin's initial reluctance -"Seems like it."

-"Yeah, he told us we could tell mecha this part." Sideswipe wore a grin identical to Sunstreaker. -"Sorry to burst your bubble."

* * *

Everyone's out to get Jazz.

Dude, I totally love comments so drop a line, it would be really cool.


	3. Chapter 3

Welcome to the next chapter where Jazz prays to Primus, Prowl refuses to be intimidated and Sunstreaker has a bad night _

Jazz Could just go straight up and ask Prowl but who did that? Nah, it was much more fun to find things out on his own. Twins were tougher than he thought. Bluestreak was literally no help because he and Prowl shared zero prior history apart from both of them being Praxian.

This left personal records. After trading a couple of shifts around Jazz managed getting a decent quiet evening shift to root about in personnel files.

Sure, it was not entirely legal for unauthorised personnel Buuut... A little cassette had whispered to him that they were looking for a mole in the precinct and what better way to contribute to investigation than look for discrepancies in the files of the newcomers?

Jazz scrolled through the list, he had to be quick; evening shifts were quiet but there were still mecha around.

Landing on a glyph '∏', Jazz kept scrolling; Perceptor, Pipes, Polaris… who even was that?... Prowl, bingo.

He plugged a prepped data pad into the terminal and drummed fingers lightly on the polished surface of the console while waiting for the file download to complete.

Jazz frowned a little when it took longer than expected. This was unusual, was Prowl's dossier that extensive?

Faint pedesteps approached from the corridor leading to the personnel archives, Jazz stopped drumming and very carefully unplugged the datapad before the download was complete. He checked his inner chronometer - too early for hourly night patrol of the office and those steps were too quiet to be Nigtbeat's and too light to be Sunstreaker's. Was somemech else in the building that he hadn't accounted for?

He peered up at the vent cover and soundlessly hopped on one of the archive drives. A shadow passed before one of the corridor lights just at the entrance of the archive. Slag that quick mech, if whoever they were would continue at that pace Jazz would be soon found out.

There was no time for hiding in vents - too loud at this distance. Jazz huffed and pulled himself up the structure support beam instead. Visor on lowest setting, he leant against the concrete bars, hiding most of his frame within the shadow cast by the structure. If he was lucky the newcomer would not even glance up. They rarely did…

The pedesteps stopped before they entered the range in which Jazz could see. He had to strain his audials to have any clue of who the newcomer was or what they were doing. The mech was hesitant to approach for some reason.

Were they scanning? Because if they were, Jazz was well and truly slagged. His proximity cloaking was still standard issue, no thanks to Red Alert, and his presence could be detected by fellow enforcers who had a mod of a higher tier.

-"Hello?"

Jazz swore to himself - Praxians were surely to be his undoing. Out of all mecha it just Had to be Prowl. Anyone else he would have had enough rapport with to let this slide but Prowl was his superior and a hard-aft rule-abiding one at that.

Jazz bit his lip and waited, schooling his systems to remain calm. In a way it felt as if he was on a mission all over again. Prowl was another mech he had to get away from - the only difference being that he could not attack his superior in defense. Diversion was also out of question because Then Prowl would go into pursuit mode and those could get ugly very quickly.

Ironhide had gotten on their SIC's bad side once about the internal workings of the precinct. Prowl had gone to investigate who was responsible for leaving empty dirty energon cubes on top of the office dispenser.

Blaster agreed that it was probably both a demonstration of power and immense boredom. Yet, the resulting hot-on-tracks chase and the standoff between the relatively petite Prowl and heavily-armored Ironhide was something to be saved and savored.

Prowl came to stand in front of the terminal, doorwings splayed wide. Before doing anything else he glanced over his shoulder, scanning the area where Jazz was hiding. Seemingly satisfied with what he had or hadn't seen, he went ahead to check the terminal. Luckily not the one Jazz had been using but if he drew up activity logs…

Doorwings shot up, Jazz groaned inwardly, yep, he'd looked at the activity logs alright. The Praxian rummaged about his chassis for a bit and ...

Whoa! Prowl didn't play around.

Gun unholstered, the SIC quietly crept along the side of the archive terminal. Doorwings rigid but resting just below his shoulder struts - out of the harm's way in case of direct confrontation.

Jazz had not accounted for a thorough sweep. His hideout worked because of where Prowl stood at that moment but he could be easily spotted if someone looked up at a wrong angle. This meant that he would have to move With Prowl on high alert just below. Somehow balancing over a tub full of scraplets was a far more desirable experience.

But move Jazz did, in sync with the SIC below. Treading softly, he clung to shadows, running his proximity jammers for all they were worth.

-"I know you are here."

Jazz reverted to religion and gave a short prayer to Pimus. Prowl had spoken in direction which was definitely Jazz-free but that might not be the case for much longer.

Then he got an idea. An absurdly stupid idea which was likely to land him into some kind of trouble along the way but pit was it worth a try.

He pinged Prowl's emergency line which he was sure would come through.

 _::Hey mech, 'm sorry ta bother ya so late but are ya up ta sum friendly chat in th' off-hours?::_

It was comical to see Prowl's body language in response to Improper off-hours messaging **TM**.

Doorwings shot up in indignation and then lowered swiftly, a small groan of annoyance.

 _::Is this a code name for an emergency situation?::_

Glib answers were the best to piss off Prowl.

 _::Na mech, oh, Oh, aw mech. This ain't th' right line::_

Prowl did not reply but he did stop and Jazz could clearly hear him grumble " _Idiot"_ under his breath.

Jazz grinned and started retreating to the entrance, making sure the shadows still worked in his favor.

 _::But since ah 'ave woken ya up, would ya be int'rested?::_

Prowl stopped once again and Jazz used this temporary bafflement to hop down from the support structure.

:: _This is hardly the time, please refrain from contacting me on this line outside of an emergency situation.::_

Prowl still hadn't moved and Jazz used this to angle his way outside through the archive entrance that Prowl had left open.

 _::Gotcha.::_

Once safely out, Jazz stopped, swiveled around and leant against the wall next to the archive entrance; Prowl was likely to spend some more time in there looking for the intruder but eventually he would go out. Aand, whilst Jazz did not have archive clearance he was supposed to be in office, Prowl, however, wasn't and that was as good a blackmail material as any. So Jazz checked on that precious datapad in his subspace and waited for the Praxian to exit.

About ten clicks later Prowl stormed through the Archive door and locked it behind him.

-"Why 'ello there."

Prowl jolted, obviously surprised, he had subspaced his gun though. Pushing himself off the wall and effectively into Prowl's path, Jazz used his slight height difference to give him a smirk. Doorwings canted back politely but stayed rigid, indicative of wariness.

-"Can I help you?"

-"Nah, jus' wond'rin' whatcha doin' 'ere this late."

Jazz stretched but made no attempt of clearing Prowl's path.

-" I am not obliged to report to you and you are effectively in my way. Is this behavior meant to intimidate me or is it an awkward way of flirting?"

Prowl's words could give a mech a frostbite, well, no beating around the bush then.

-"Neith'r really, jus' wond'rin' why ya still 'ere."

-"If you find your shift so uneventful that you have the time to wonder about schedules of other mecha and 'comm me on a frequency reserved for emergencies, I am certain I could find something for you to do."

Jazz bit down the natural retort. Working next to Prowl was likely to be boring as slag yet an excellent opportunity to study him.

-"Actually, ah wouldna mind."

Prowl reset his optics, eyeing Jazz as he sometimes eyed the twins - in anticipation of a prank.

Jazz kept his faceplate neutral and posture loose.

-"Alright." Prowl closed his optics and pinched his nasal ridge while drawing in a vent -" I want you to study the video feed of tonight's Archive recording."

-"Anythin' particular ya lookin' fo'?"

-"Anyone entering or leaving apart from myself."

Jazz nodded, there went his seamless plan. Keeping the proverbial stiff upper lip, Jazz nodded. He had hoped that it would be something along the lines of rewriting his reports, he rather wished it was something like that.

-"Oh, and when you are done with that - I want you to look through your reports. I have annotated the places that need more attention."

-"Yessir!" Jazz straightened in an awkward salute and asked for a permission to leave.

Jazz could not believe that he was going through the security feed in which he was the prime suspect. Luckily he had been careful enough to avoid cameras but some mech else hadn't.

The frame was strangely similar to Steeljaw in that it was a quadrupedal and rather small.

Was that the reason Prowl's file was downloading slower? Someone was downloading it in sync with Jazz!

And if Prowl had locked the door the intruder should have still remained in the Archive!

 _::Prowl! Ah got somethin'!::_

 _::This better be an emergency.::_

Jazz sent him the snapshots of what he'd found.

 _::Archive, Now, code yellow.::_

Jazz unholstered his own gun and headed down to the archive. Prowl was already there, standard riot shield on. After signaling readiness they unlocked the door, Prowl taking lead and entering the room to stand just a bit further than the doorway and Jazz covering him.

There was no movement to be registered, no sound either, then they heard a shot being fired and out of the blue a small rocket went past Prowl's shield and exploded against the doorframe behind him. Prowl grunted, axing his doorwings down to protect them from the burnt of the explosion. Through the smoke Jazz noticed something black and silver whizz past him and into the hall and gave it chase.

 _::He headin' to transport decks, Sunny on intercept.::_

 _::The slagger Bit me!::_ Came a moment later from the golden riot.

 _::'s long as ya got 'im attached.::_

This time there was no response, and no response from a bitten Sunstreaker...

Jazz sped up and saw the golden frame on the floor, leaking energon from neck tubing.

 _::Ratch, need ya down by the transport decks.::_

There was a ping of confirmation and Jazz knelt by the leaking riot, attempting to slow the energon loss by pressing the cables together.

Prowl arrived only moments later, looking at Sunstreaker, then Jazz and rushing past them towards the transport decks.

There was a noise of a couple of shots fired and then nothing.

-"Prowl?!" Jazz called out after their newly-appointed SIC, hoping had not met the same fate as Sunstreaker.

Moments later the mech in question returned from the deck area, holstering a rifle and unsubspacing a data pad. Jazz gaped - first gun, now a rifle, was he a walking armory? Then again, Prowl Had rocket launchers mounted on his back, so there was that. Clearly their little visitor had escaped but the mech was calm like Pious Pools.

-"I'm fine, how is he?"

Busy with Sunstreaker's lines, Ratchet grumbled but it seemed like it was not the "I'm losing him" sort of grumble. -"Jazz, get a gunrey, Prowl, I'll need you to open doors for me."

Once Sunstreaker was safely in the medbay, Jazz went to Prowl's office. The mech was sp mesmerised by the datapad and didn't acknowledge Jazz's arrival at once, so naturally Jazz went to Prowl's desk and leant over his shoulder to look at what had captivated their SIC's attention so completely.

A small glowing dot moved down the map through the area Jazz knew was out of their precinct already.

-"Nice. Tho, quick lil' slagger."

Prowl sighed a little and pushed away from his table, effectively bopping Jazz in his mid-section with the back or his chair in an unspoken reminder of personal space limits and that Prowl actually had them.

-"He has help. No quadruped can travel at a speed of a seeker."

By the morning Jazz had managed raking up as many snapshots of their mysterious visitor as possible. On his way to Prowl's office he did a small detour through medbay to see if Sunstreaker was in any state to tell them anything.

Sideswipe and Bluestreak were already hovering in the corridor at the entrance but apparently they had come too soon. Ratchet informed them that Sunstreaker remained in deep stasis for his repairs to integrate.

Slightly disappointed, Jazz pinged Prowl with an unnecessary update just to annoy him.

 _::Prowl?::_

No response,

 _::Prowler?::_

Still nothing.

Oh, this was serious; Jazz headed to the SIC's office immediately. Prowl Always answered unless… He peered inside and almost laughed, the Praxian sat leant back in his chair, doorwings lax, optics shuttered, a slight snore coming out of his intakes. He was almost adorable like this, such a shame to wake him up…

Jazz tiptoed around his superior's chair and whispered into his audial.

-"Pro~owl."

Those pretty doorwings twitched and then everything else went to slag, Jazz found himself flying mid-way through the air and landing painfully on his back, being pinned down at the gunpoint.

-"Just what do you think you are doing?"

-"Mech!" Jazz lifted his hands up -"Reportin' mah findin's"

Prowl lowered his gun and extended his hand to help Jazz up.

-"Jus' how long 'ave ya been 'ere?"

-"Clearly not long enough to teach mecha to knock before entering."

-"Mech, ya know what ah meant." Jazz leveled Prowl with a serious look and sure enough, those doorwings went up defensively.

-"I'm your commanding officer."

-"Yer shift's ova." Jazz parried and was met with a glare.

-"P'haps ya could go hom'n, recharge prop'ly? Ya ain' gettin' mo' done like dis."

-"An officer was attacked and data was stolen within our precinct. I can't just go home, Jazz. This is my responsibility."

Jazz crossed arms over his chassis and tilted his helm to the side.

-"So ya recharge 'ere 'nstead?"

-"I had not intended to fall into recharge." Prowl amended, looking ashamed of himself. -"And if I recall correctly, your shift had ended groons ago."

Jazz smirked, seems like they were starting to tread on some common ground. -" 't ain't only on yer shoulders, mech."

Yay! I squeezed my buttcheeks together to get this out.


End file.
